by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
I played pee wee baseball for only one season. Pretty quickly, I figured out that baseball wasn’t my jam. Between second base and the outfield, the fear of getting hit by the ball consumed me. In that season, my teammates made playing a sport I wasn’t good at fun. I knew how hard the coach was trying to get me to enjoy playing baseball, but in the end, I just enjoyed being part of a team that I knew couldn’t be sustained past this season. We didn’t win a lot; thankfully, I felt I contributed to some of the wins.
The trip down memory lane for baseball was one of the fun parts of watching Win or Lose. The series is a vignette story from the perspective of several different characters on the Pickles baseball team. As they make the way to the day of their pee wee baseball championship game, several characters, on and off the team, share their struggles personally and on the field.
I have to hand it to Pixar for taking a risk here. Except for Dream Productions, they haven’t done much with long-form, episodic television. Disney hasn’t exactly had success with shows on Disney+, so Pixar dipping their toes into television feels either like a fun evolution into other mediums, or desperation from the House of Mouse for anything that resembles a hit. In turn, Pixar is up and up, with Inside Out 2 making gangbusters at the box office in 2024. If anything, Pixar might have been the best choice of a studio that created liberties to make a story worth telling for television.
There are a bunch of things I will give Pixar credit for with Win or Lose, starting with the animation style. Pixar has done a fantastic job ensuring all their movies have a unique animation style. What sets Win or Lose apart from the film is that each episode is unique, with a colorful array of animation styles. Each character has a way of being presented that is specific to them in both a positive and negative way, addressing issues and coping mechanisms similarly. Each character’s make-up makes each episode singular, with 2D animation, animation that feels like a cardboard cutout, and comic book-style layouts. The use of colors is awe-inspiring during character sequences, considering that, for the most part, it’s a traditional computer-animated primary palette. The sequences that struck me the most involve Pickles pitcher Yuwen (Izaac Wang), because of the outstanding use of animation that looks like cardboard, as well as how his storyline involves topics of being vulnerable and putting up a “cool guy” persona.
The storytelling method can sometimes feel choppy, but I love how inventive it is to tell the story from several viewpoints. Win or Lose is not precisely told linearly, echoing Tarantino levels of storytelling mechanics. Because of the other vantage points, we don’t always understand how someone else feels until we see it from their perspective. This lesson about perspective is terrific to teach everyone, not just kids, as a reminder that we don’t know what’s going on in someone’s head, and that taking the time to slow down and listen might be a necessary route to helping someone.
I’d be remiss not to address the controversy surrounding the Pickles’ star outfielder Kai (Chanel Stewart). Originally written as a trans character, Disney decided to remove this aspect of her character. Stewart criticized the decision, and I agree with her assessment of the situation. The episode that focuses on Kai is one of the series’ best episodes, but unfortunately, it is watered down to not address some of the root issues at hand. The lessons are similar, with her dad pushing her to be the best she can be. As a character, Kai could have been a groundbreaking moment for Disney, but instead, they blinked and caved into the potential pressure. It’s disappointing that the studio wouldn’t let the story continue as initially conceived. Still, it hardly comes as a surprise, considering some recent news regarding Disney’s decision to back away from social issues in their content.
What’s most striking about Win or Lose are the themes this tackles. Every character has something going on in their lives that is causing them to struggle. Win or Lose isn’t interested in casting judgment, but in spreading awareness about how situations in people’s lives can affect them in various ways. Take Coach Dan (Will Forte) and his daughter Laurie (Rosanna Jean Foss). Each character struggles with something similar, like feeling like an imposter and anxiety surrounding their relationship. How they manifest these feelings is different and butts up against other teammate’s issues. Coach Dan’s coping strategy is to whisper his true thoughts at people, and Laurie’s is to have her anxiety sweat glob into a monster that weighs her down. Every character in the series has a coping mechanism for money, social media issues, and relationships. It can be a little overwhelming at times, but it also feels authentic that everyone works together at the end to help for a shared cause.
The other theme that is present is teamwork. Relationships are a key aspect of Win or Lose, whether it involves family, friends, or personal relationships. The team as a whole is strong, but the issues that specific individuals have threaten this balance. The final game is a mess between the coach, players, and umpire Frank (Josh Thomson). In turn, the two families’ relationships are compromised, and certain characters need to resolve them so they can move forward. Taylor (Kyliegh Curran) and her brother Ira (Dorien Watson) have different issues, with an episode dedicated to Ira befriending random kids while Taylor is at practice. Taylor, though, is dealing with issues with Yuwen. Both of these issues affect the relationship with one another. Similar issues persist with the Pickles’ catcher, Rochelle (Milan Elizabeth Ray,) and her social media star mother, Vanessa (Rosa Salazar).
The championship game for the Pickles culminates with all these issues coming to the forefront with the characters. It’s an important milestone for all the characters, yet each character faces critical decisions about themselves that bring the game to a halt. Everything we learn throughout the season is testing, and how it is resolved is beautiful. It’s hard to stick to the landing at the end of a season, and considering everything that happens, Win or Lose does this in a way that shows that people are far more critical.
Pixar is on to something with Win or Lose. A longform story like this provides opportunities to experiment with animation styles and play with themes that have more time to develop. The characters are unforgettable collectively and individually; this is a genuinely unique experience. It could have been an all-timer, and if the story had unfolded the way it was initially meant, it would have been in the pantheon of Disney+ originals. Instead, we get a great, close-to-outstanding series stunted by fear. Despite that, Win or Lose is one of the best things Pixar has put out in a long time, and should be a path forward to doing more television shows in the future.
Rating: Liked It
Win or Lose is currently streaming on Disney+
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